SERIES THREAD: FAU vs. LA Tech April 12th-14th, 2019

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Honestly right now in all reality it looks like our path into the postseason this year is going to be winning the conference tourney. Cusa, RPI wise is absolutely horrid this year, I mean insanely horrid. At least 2 of our remaining series are against teams in the 200's i believe off the top of my head. Our usual weak non conf schedule has been inflated this year because the Cusa is just so weak this season. USM is surviving on name alone right now and is trending out of at large status lately and La Tech is trending up and should continue to do so as the toughest conf series on their schedule are behind them. For us to receive an at large bid we would need to finish in the mid to low 30's RPI range this year and that wouldn't even be a guarantee the way college baseball is shaping up this year. So unless we go on some unbelievable tear for the rest of the season with some long winning streaks and build some national media attention late in the season then we will most likely have to win our way in thru the conf tourney.

The La Tech series would have been a good RPI shot in the arm down the final stretch of the season, our early season woes and losses to teams like App State have just been RPI killers. Theres still a few good RPI boosting teams left on our schedule but any loss to any other team in our remaining conf series other than USM will erase any positive movement in RPI rankings, which would mean almost finishing with perfection down the final stretch of the season. The problem is that so far this season the outsider opinion of FAU (and most likely the selection committee as well) is that other than 1 or 2 weekday wins is that FAU really hasn't won any significant series at all. Which in reality is true if you think about it. Lost to Ill and lost to La Tech, 1-2 against UM in weekday games, only significant series remaining is USM. The poll rankings mentioned by Owlsdad I'm guessing is from Collegiate Baseball news (which I personally like because they don't bow down to the P5 fans for extra clicks on their site) however they are generally viewed as an outlier poll. The fact of the matter is we haven't made any real noise this year so we are basically going to be dependent on a good RPI ranking to slide in with an at large bid which is going to be difficult at this point in time or just win our way in. Google Boyds RPI needs report and scroll down to FAU to see the challenge that lies ahead to sneak in with an at large bid. The positive is that this team has the potential to make it both ways though so nothing would surprise me with coach Mac and this team.

Just keeping it realistic.

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Local Owl said

Absolutely yes. And the three you mentioned, imho, will probably make the tourney. Baring any slide by one of them. The difference this year is our usual regional locations, Gainesville, miami, seem winnable. Those guys have shown some weeknesses this year. But fau needs to keep winning. The magic number of 40 wins is key. It is possible.